Islamist Radicalization : Predictably Islamic

"Radicalization to violence is an inherently social process. It is very rare for someone to act completely alone with no support or input -- material or ideological -- from the outside."
"We have to get away from models that [try to] explain each and every case. If we misanalyze what's driving it, our policies are wrong ... and it leads to bad decisions."
Former CSIS analyst, Phil Gurski

Mr. Gurski is the author of a newly published book on violent extremism, titled The Threat From Within. Yet another book by yet another expert on militant Islamist jihadism, giving yet another opinion on what it is that drives the faithful to dread acts of unspeakable carnage against innocent people, declaring as they slaughter their victims: "Allahu Akbar" [God is Greatest].

Even the experts, those skilled in interpreting people's basest instincts to act in ways that defy decency and the most basic of humanitarian defenses against utter psychosis as a way of life, seem to delicately sidestep the reality that they are moved to act as they do, from exposure to scrips that are viewed as sacred, handed down by a historical figure declared a Prophet, in the name of a hallowed human construction, an omniscient, jealous Spirit demanding absolute obedience to his every word.

Implicit in that jealous spirit of the Almighty is the requirement that no other gods share timeless space and reverence with the one whom the Prophet has identified and brought before an unwilling world. That unwilling world must be led to surrender to the Almighty, for there is only one Timeless and authentic God that humanity must prostrate itself before.

Mr. Gurski gives scant credit to the Internet as an incubator for extremism, considering it a 'force multiplier', not an irreplaceable generator of the conviction that all faithful Muslims have an obligation to their god to pledge themselves to jihad, the viciously violent partner to the more gentle persuasion of proselytization.



As far as he is convinced, no "self-radicalization" is possible, and the so-called "lone wolf" terrorists represent a misnomer, a self-deceiving mischaracterization of the reality of the power of the Koran, the sermons to incitement from the mosques, and the general social atmosphere prevailing that convinces Muslims that they and their religion are under siege.

The pathology of paranoia is a deliberate tool of the Islamists who manipulate the emotions of the faithful, to bring them into the fold of jihad dedicated to outmanoeuvring the non-Muslims oblivious of the fate that awaits them as they good-naturedly refuse to believe that any kind of shared belief in the larger Islamic community is meant to destroy what they value, believe and trust.

Mr. Gurski is right on the mark when he explains that violent radicalization depends on association with like-minded others; inducted since birth into a faith whose charismatic or spiritual mentors or leaders emphasize. One such spiritual mentor whose vision galvanized the Sunni sect of Islam was Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood almost a hundred years ago.

Another was Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shiite exile who returned to Iran from France after the fall of Shah Pahlevi, and who brought to Iran in 1979 the Iranian Revolution that revolutionized Islam toward a pure, fundamentalist ideology heavily tinged with terroristic violence.

Both, like the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, practised a Salafist type of Islam owing its Islamist credentials to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th Century.



It is not possible to reason with people infused with the kind of faith that brooks no questioning, sees no value in transforming itself in reflection of the modern era, since they believe implicitly that what they devote their lives to is the living, impervious voice of the Almighty. That is the voice that impels them to become martyrs in the cause of transforming the world into one monopolistic orchestration of worship of Islam.

Counter-terrorism schemes and research emanating from academia have credited "root causes" of poverty, lack of education, low social status, unemployment, gender and age toward a template that would predict the rise of violent jihad among those who fit into those categories. The belief that "normal" people would be resistant to the narrative of divine calls to jihad to protect Islam from the evil that infidels inflict upon Muslims is rife with error.